The Hitler salute is forbidden in Germany but that doesn't mean you cannot reach out with your right arm for fear of getting jailed. It is a matter of context and intention.

So if a group of neonazis shows the 'resistance salute' (like the Hitler salute but with only three fingers outstretched to form a 'W' (first letter of the German word for 'resistance') the planned dissimilarity in appearance of the salute will not prevent them to be sentenced.

For some time, it was a 'contest' among photographers to picture each politician doing the 'Hitler salute' but that fad soon disappeared for it was too easy: Reaching out with his right hand for something above head level, saluting a crowd, trying to calm down a hostile crowd, asking for the right to question during a speech of somebody else in parliament etc...


Wolfgang